Exclusive Interview: Kung Fu’s Tony Chung Chats Episode 204, Dennis’ Upcoming Struggles, and More

Tony Chung has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most versatile leading men. From releasing two self-written albums in Asia to being featured in global campaigns for brands like H&M, Uniqlo, Remy Martin, and RayBan, Tony can do it all. But he’s best known for his starring role in the must-see series Kung Fu.

Adapted from the popular ’70s series, Kung Fu follows a young Chinese-American woman, Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), whose quarter-life crisis causes her to drop out of school and make a life-changing journey to a monastery in China. When she makes her return home, she discovers that her town has been overrun with corruption. Nicky must rely on her community as well as her martial arts skills to protect those she cares about the most and seek justice for those who are unable to. Tony shines as Nicky’s charismatic brother-in-law Dennis who seems to have it all together. But we’ll learn later this season that Dennis is struggling with his own inner battles.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Tony about Kung Fu Season 2, his character’s upcoming arc, and being a jokester on set.

PC: One of the central themes of Kung Fu is about creating your own path. You’ve had this really interesting journey from electrical engineering into the arts. How did you discover your passion for acting, music, and fashion? What was the moment when you realized you wanted to pursue a career in this industry?
Tony: Great question. I’ve always been a very curious person. If there’s something I’m interested in, I’m going to give it a go. Music for instance was something that I got into early on in the ’90s. I was really into the grunge period, like Nirvana and Soundgarden. Then I got into Silverchair, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, and that kind of thing. My instinct was to pick up a guitar. I remember I told my dad. He had this guitar from when he was in the military a long time ago. It was broken at the head. He superglued it, as an Asian parent would, instead of buying a new one. I got obsessed with playing guitar and started taking lessons. I started forming bands, playing talent shows, and writing music.

I really took a deep dive into music. That was an active decision. Whereas modeling, when I moved into that maybe seven years later, was a passive decision. I was scouted in the East Village in New York City. It was just good timing—I was transitioning away from music.

But music was an active decision. I was really going hard at it. Financially, it wasn’t viable, as many musicians would know, but my soul was absolutely full. I absolutely loved waking up every morning. I had a mission to write music, mix, produce, and perform with my band. Whereas modeling was financially viable. After many, many years of that, I still enjoy it, but I wanted something more. I wanted somewhere to channel my creativity.

Acting was a no-brainer. If you look at my yearbook from the first grade, everyone wrote what they wanted to be when they grew up and mine was to be an actor. I was obsessed with Tom Cruise movies when I was a kid. Throughout elementary and middle school, I loved performing in skits for school projects. It came full circle when I started doing TV commercials through modeling and then started moving more towards training for acting and decided to do the deep dive. The rest is history.

PC: You and Dennis share a lot in common. Was that one of the reasons why you were attracted to this project? Is it more or less challenging for you as an actor to play a character whom you share a lot of similarities with?
Tony: It was awesome and serendipitous that Dennis and I shared similar qualities. Like you said, I studied electrical engineering in college. I grew up in Silicon Valley, so I was always obsessed with technology. That’s not past tense. I still am to this day. I’m obsessed with Apple, Tesla, all these things. To be able to play a character on TV that has similar traits and characteristics has been very rewarding. Having said that, it’s always super fun to play a character who deviates from that and is someone that you would never be able to channel in real life.

Long story short, it’s been such a pleasure playing Dennis. In Season 2, as you will see in tonight’s episode (as well as throughout the rest of Season 2), Dennis has some struggles. That’s been awesome to portray.

PC: Like you were saying, tonight is a big episode for Dennis and he finds himself in a sticky situation, which provides a lot of really comedic moments. Has comedy always come easy for you?
Tony: I grew up watching shows like SNL and Mad TV. I was really into Jim Carrey growing up. I grew up on Ace Ventura, The Mask, all these movies. Comedy has always been a part of me. If you ask some of the other cast members, you’ll learn I love joking around. I love inside jokes. I love having a good time.

I try to not take myself too seriously. The people that I try to model my life on are all people who have done very well successfully but who also don’t take themselves too seriously. I try to live by this motto: cool, silly. You could be cool, but you can’t actually be fully cool if you don’t have a silly side to you and vice versa. Comedy has always been a part of me. It’s been cool to be able to channel the comedic side of Dennis, which was not seen too much in Season 1. Credit to Richard Lowe for writing all these comedic bits into this episode. All credit goes to him.

PC: Super excited for tonight’s episode! We’re going to get to see Dennis and Althea get in on the action. How did the preparation for it differ from previous ones that you’ve done?
Tony: Dennis, so far, has been this perfect guy. He’s a mathlete, comes from a wealthy family, protects and loves his dear fiancée-turned-wife Althea. This episode takes a sharp turn because you will see that Dennis, like everyone in this world, is not a perfect person. He has his own personal issues. He runs into a predicament in Episode 4 and has to seek the help of everyone from Nicky to Evan to Ryan to help him resolve this predicament. It’s been very different in that sense. I absolutely loved shooting this episode for that reason. Richard Speight, Jr. was at the helm as director. He’s in the episode too! It was such a pleasure shooting it with the two Richards. I can’t wait for everyone to see it.

PC: There’s such great chemistry that comes off the screen between you and Shannon [Dang]. Was that instant? How did you two build that bond?
Tony: Shannon and I are similar in that she comes from a dance background—she was a cheerleader for the Rams and the Clippers—and I did modeling for a good nine or ten years before this show. So we share a similar background. We shot the pilot in March of 2020. As everyone in the world knows, that’s when COVID started. COVID 1.0, I suppose. When we came back to shoot Season 1 in August, September of 2020, we were each other’s bubbles. Our cast became so close during that time. The beautiful thing is, I’ve heard now through working on the show that not every cast and crew is built like ours in the sense that our cast legitimately gets along. We don’t have any internal drama or anything like that. But we all get along so well, and we love each other. That definitely has helped to solidify my bond with Shannon in terms of our being able to channel Althea and Dennis to the best of our abilities.

PC: This is such a unique episode for the franchise. Is there a particular scene that you’re really excited for fans to see tonight?
Tony: So many, but I will say there is an Easter egg in this episode. The Easter egg involves Olivia who plays Nicky. She breaks in one of the scenes. When I say “break,” it’s actor speak for when you accidentally start laughing during the middle of the take.

The funny thing is, when you have any combination of Olivia, Jon Prasida, and myself in a scene together, it’s a circus. It’s hard to get work done in the best way possible. We can’t stop breaking. We laugh and we laugh. We tell inside jokes in between takes. I’ve literally learned now that I can’t go to Jon Prasida in between takes. I can’t even look at him in between takes. I need to stay in the zone and finish the scene. Because I have all these things that come up in between takes that I want to say to him. Then I look him in the eyes while we’re shooting and one of us breaks. [laughs]

So long story short, in this episode there is an Easter egg of Olivia breaking. I encourage you all to watch the episode and try to find that moment. It’s so funny that they used that take. In the moment, I was like, “Oh man. I feel kind of bad.” I had said a joke to her because it was her coverage, (meaning the camera was on her). I said a joke and it solicited laughter. We’re trying to film a TV show here. Time is of the essence. I felt bad that we had to do another take because she cracked. But they ended up using it! It was ingenious. I’m looking forward to fans seeing that.

Also, the final five or ten minutes involving the car will be a treat for the eyes and all your senses!

PC: Such a good teaser. Definitely got to look out for that Olivia moment tonight. This is the longest that you’ve lived with a character. Has anything surprised you about the experience? What’s been the biggest takeaway for you thus far?
Tony: Great question. I recently learned this. Do you know how many parts are in a Toyota Corolla—or any car?

PC: I actually saw your tweet. It’s 30,000, right?

Tony: Yes! That’s crazy. I didn’t know there were 30,000 parts in a car. I say that in reference to this question because it truly takes a village to shoot a TV show. I’ve witnessed that firsthand. I knew going into it, but oh my gosh. From the executive producers and showrunners to the writers’ room to the make-up to the stylist to wardrobe to camera operators to mic operators, it takes such a big crew to sustain excellence throughout the course of an entire season, which can last anywhere from six to eight months. It’s truly an honor to be a part of.

I was talking to Josh Knepper, who is one of our camera operators. He’s super talented. He was telling us about how before he comes to set for every scene that he shoots, he actually maps out and reads the scene. He goes through with his guys and maps out exactly how they’re going to shoot this shot and the reasoning behind every decision they’re making. Because every episode we have a different director.

You have someone coming in and you have to explain to them this is how we’re going to shoot this scene. He was telling me that he tries to bring his A game every day in that respect—and that his team does as well—to shoot our show. That’s not always the case. This probably applies to so many contexts and not just this series, but people show up to do their job, right? I’m here. I’m going to do X, Y, Z and I’m going to go home. I’m going to enjoy my life.

But on this show, everyone is so passionate about not only their craft but the show. They bring their A game every day. I have goosebumps talking about it. That has been such a pleasant thing to witness. I just didn’t fathom this prior to actually being on the set of a show for two seasons now. Shout out to our entire crew, cast, and everyone who works on this show. It wouldn’t be what it is without all of them.

PC: You all do such a fantastic job on it. You already touched upon this a little bit earlier in the interview. We know you can’t say too much, but what’s ahead for Dennis for the remainder of the season?
Tony: We referenced that Dennis is going to have some struggles in today’s episode, which you can see in the promo. But I will say that this is not the end of his struggles. He’s got some more coming at him throughout Season 2. You’re going to get to see how he and Althea navigate it. It’s going to be fun to watch. There’ll be some punches thrown in.

PC: Kung Fu has already been picked up for a third season. Congratulations, by the way. Where would you like to see Dennis’ storyline head in the future? Is there another character that you would love to see him interact more with?
Tony: Kerwin! Hear me out, hear me out! My friend was telling me about this. I thought it was an interesting take. You have these two wealthy families, right? You have the Soong family. You have the Tan empire, if you will. They have to knock off each other, right? Especially with how the Tans are intertwined with the Shens. It would be awesome if Kerwin and Dennis somehow amassed some empire of their own. Maybe it’s cryptocurrency-related or something like that. To see them interact would be so interesting because it’s something that you haven’t seen yet and you can’t fathom. It would be interesting to see the Soongs and the Tans have some sort of situation.

To keep up with Tony, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Kung Fu every Wednesday at 9/8c on the CW.

Photo Credit: Rodolfo Martinez